Comments leaperz has made

  • Solar naysayers

    The solar naysayers might want to read Scientific American's latest analysis, A Solar Grand Plan. The gist of it is:

    A massive switch from coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear power plants to solar power plants could supply 69 percent of the U.S.'s electricity and 35 percent of its total energy by 2050.

    Unless you can cogently refute the analysis, you shouldn't be so quick to write off the technology. Full article at: http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=a-solar-grand-planOn The numbers add up for solar power, whether you're in Seattle or Albuquerque posted 1 year, 9 months ago 11 Responses

  • Cosmic Ray Distractions Out of Left Field

    No doubt we'll see this cosmic ray story bouncing around the right-wing blogosphere as one more reason we hapless humans shouldn't bother trying to do anything about global warming.

    The folks at RealClimate saw this one coming and rightfully point out that cosmic rays have been measured since 1953 by the neutron monitor at Climax Station in Colorado and no long-term trends have been indicated. Hence, no positive link to global warming has been established.

    Commenting on the Svensmark research, RealClimate says:


    At the time we pointed out that while the experiments were potentially of interest, they are a long way from actually demonstrating an influence of cosmic rays on the real world climate, and in no way justify the hyperbole that Svensmark and colleagues put into their press releases and more 'popular' pieces. Even if the evidence for solar forcing were legitimate, any bizarre calculus that takes evidence for solar forcing of climate as evidence against greenhouse gases for current climate change is simply wrong.

    Cherry picking facts and figures is a favorite tactic of the deniers of human-induced global warming. In contrast, identifying long-term trends, correlating aggregate data, evaluating peer-reviewed research, and examining large-scale patterns are the elements that constitute real science.

    The Union of Concerned Scientists offers some thoughtful perspective on the human fingerprints of climate change.    On Bush administration put on the defensive over climate change posted 2 years, 9 months ago 6 Responses